Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Groups Petition U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to Reclassify #Wolves from Endangered to Threatened Status.

By Rachel Tilseth, the founder of Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsinon
February 3, 2015
Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin signed a petition
along with 21 other regional and national conservation and wolf
advocacy organizations, to keep protections in place – asking the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service to reclassify wolves from “endangered” to
“threatened.” The proposal would ensure federal oversight of wolves,
encourage the development of a national recovery plan, and keep funding
in place for wolf recovery while permitting states to address specific
wolf conflicts.

WODCW believes this threatened status will give non-lethal
opportunities to address concerns regarding wolves with livestock
producers and maintain the health of wolves. WODCW believes wolves
should remain healthy, wild and not harassed from trophy hunts.

“Wildlife groups have said they want to compromise, and have asked
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to place the gray wolf on a less
restrictive threatened species list.”

“Rachel Tilseth of Wolves of Douglas County, Wisconsin said there’d
be no wolf hunt, but perhaps some help for ranchers and farmers.”

“The states would work with Fish and Wildlife Services closely to
solve any problems concerning depredation with livestock, so this is
like the best solution for wolves because it opens the door to more
communication,” said Tilseth. From WPR interview read full story here:

WODCW believes this a compromise that will save wolves from being
delisted altogether. Members of congress are proposing legislation to
delist wolves in 4 states and attach a Ryder to it preventing judicial
review. Read full news article update here:

“The Wisconsin DNR reclassified wolves from endangered to threatened
in 1999, delisted to protected wild animals on 1 August 2004, and
designated a game species on 2 April 2012. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service federally downlisted wolves to threatened from 1 April 2003 to
31 January 2005 relisted thereafter, delisted from 12 March 2007 to 29
September 2008, relisted thereafter, delisted on 3 May 2009 to 1 July
2009, relisted thereafter, and delisted wolves again on 27 January
2012.. The 1999 Wisconsin Wolf Management Plan and 2007 Wolf Plan
Addendum determined wolf management in the state, and this report
follows the outline of those plans to describe wolf management
activities. Act 169 signed by the Governor on 2 April 2012 designated a
wolf hunting and trapping season, and this report summarizes efforts
toward developing the public harvest.”

The film offers an abbreviated history of the relationship between wolves and people—told from the wolf’s perspective—from a time when they coexisted to an era in which people began to fear and exterminate the wolves.

The return of wolves to the northern Rocky Mountains has been called one of America’s greatest conservation stories. But wolves are facing new attacks by members of Congress who are gunning to remove Endangered Species Act protections before the species has recovered.

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Inescapably, the realization was being borne in upon my preconditioned mind that the centuries-old and universally accepted human concept of wolf character was a palpable lie... From this hour onward, I would go open-minded into the lupine world and learn to see and know the wolves, not for what they were supposed to be, but for what they actually were.

-Farley Mowat, Never Cry Wolf

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“If you look into the eyes of a wild wolf, there is something there more powerful than many humans can accept.” – Suzanne Stone